Ketu is a historical location in present day Republic of Benin. The short-lived Republic of Benin, in Nigeria's coastal Bight of Benin, was named after its capital Benin City. It is one of the oldest capitals of the Yoruba-speaking people, tracing its mythological establishment to a settlement founded by a daughter of Oduduwa. Oduduwa, phonetically written as Odùduwà, and sometimes contracted as Odudua, Oòdua, is generally held among the Yoruba to be the ancestor The regents of the town were traditionally styled "Alaketu", and are believed to be related to the Egba sub-group of the Yoruba-speaking people in present-day Nigeria. The Egba are a subgroup of the Yoruba people who live in western Nigeria.
Ketu is considered one of the seven original kingdoms established by the children of Oduduwa in Oyo mythic history, though this ancient pedigree has been somewhat neglected in contemporary Yoruba historical research, which tends to focuse on communities within Nigeria. The exact status of Ketu within the Oyo empire however is contested. Oyo sources claim Ketu as a dependency with claims that the Ketu paid an annual tribute and that its ruler attended the Bere festival in Oyo. The traditions of Ketu itself however, do not recognize any obligation to Oyo. In any case, there is no doubt that Ketu and Oyo maintained friendly relations. [1]
The kingdom was one of the main enemies of the ascendant kingdom of Dahomey, often fighting against Dahomeans as part of Oyo's imperial forces, but ultimately succumbing to the Fon in the 1880s as the kingdom was ravaged. FON (FON Wireless Ltd is a company that runs a system of shared Wireless networks The business was launched in November 2005 A large number of Ketu's citizens were sold into slavery during these raids, which accounts for the kingdom's importance in Brazilian Candomble. Candomblé (pronounced /kɐ̃dõˈblɛ/is an African-originated or Afro-Brazilian religion practiced chiefly in Brazil. Ketu is often known as Queto in Portuguese orthography. Candomblé Ketu' (or Queto in Portuguese spelling is the largest and most influential nation ( Sect) of Candomblé, a religion widely
Ewe connection
Ewe traditions refer to Ketu as Amedzofe ("origin of humanity") or Mawufe ("home of the Supreme Being"). The Ewe are a people located on the southeast corner of Ghana, east of the Volta River, in an area now described as the Volta Region. In Ewe oral history Amedzofe (Amedzoɸɛ literally 'origin/home of humanity' is one of the names for Ketu. It is believed that the inhabitants of Ketu originally belonged to the Oyo people of Nigeria and were pressed westward by a series of wars between the 10th and the 13th centuries. Nigeria, officially named the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal Constitutional republic comprising thirty-six states and one Federal In Ketu, the ancestors of the Gbe speaking peoples (Fon, Aja, etc. The Gbe languages (ɡ͡bè form a cluster of about twenty related Languages stretching across the area between eastern Ghana and western Nigeria. This is an article about the Fon people for the article about the Fon chieftains of Cameroon see Fon (Cameroon. The Aja are a group of people native to south-western Benin and south-eastern Togo ) separated themselves from other refugees and began to establish their own identity, but were pressed even further westward by the Yoruba during the 14th and 15th centuries. The Yoruba (Yo•row•ba ( Yorùbá in Yoruba Orthography) are one of the largest ethno-linguistic or Ethnic groups in West Africa
- c. 1500 - Yoruba state moved its capital to Ketu.
- 1886 - Conquered by Dahomey.
- 1893 - Restored by France under protectorate.
References
- Parrinder, E. G. The Story of Ketu: An ancient Yoruba kingdom. Ibadan, Nigeria , Ibadan University Press, 1956.
- ^ Law, R 1977, The Oyo Empire, Clarendon Press, Oxford, p. 141
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